


fight through the ghosts in the hallway

by multicorn



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-14
Updated: 2013-03-14
Packaged: 2017-12-05 08:03:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/720739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/multicorn/pseuds/multicorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blaine buys most of his bow ties at estate sales.  The first time it's with Kurt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	fight through the ghosts in the hallway

**Author's Note:**

> warning: allusion to death of minor OC.

Summer is long hot days with no school to distract them from each other, picnics and swimming and estate sales on weekend mornings.  Blaine's found the best one yet to start at today: mens' clothing, mostly small, photography equipment, some furniture.  Most of the listings say mens' and womens' clothing and end up having far more of the latter, so Kurt's speculating, is there a widow still alive at this one?  Did he die a bachelor?

 Blaine thinks this is kind of morbid, honestly, but it's not like he has better conversation at half past nine in the morning.  He's yawning and the flies are buzzing and six hours ago he wasn't even asleep yet because six hours before that he was just getting off an exhilarating shift singing the evening concert at Kings Island.  Summer schedules are strange, but good.

 ~*~

The clothes are laid out in piles and boxes in the living room.  There's a bunch of old sports coats with classic lines, wool in subtle herringbone and tweed; Kurt keeps rubbing his fingers over the roughness of the fabric, and Blaine picks them up and shakes them out one by one to really look.  He holds one up against himself, a bold large plaid in reddish-brown and black and white, delighted, and says, "Kurt, look."

 Kurt smiles.  "Like Noah from _The Notebook_.  I think you should get it, you'd look great."

Blaine laughs.  "I feel like _you_ dance me around in the street.  Oh, wait!"  Because he's spotted something else; in the corner there's a whole box of bow ties.  He kneels down, plunging his hands into the box.  "Did I ever tell you that I used to wear bow ties when I was a kid?"

"No, you didn't."  Kurt's voice is so fond, over him, Blaine feels like he could just float in it forever.  "You must've been the cutest little kid."

Blaine shrugs, and asks teasingly, "cuter than I am now?"

Kurt kneels down to join him, and grabs some of the bow ties too.  "There's no possible way."

And oh, this is what life was made for; kneeling next to his boyfriend on a warm Saturday morning fading into midday, laughing at the prints on old bow ties - baseball and golf and cats-and-dogs, really now - leaning their shoulders together and finding some simpler designs towards the bottom of the box to consider more seriously.  He picks up a plain red tie, a little darker than it could be but still bright, and pulls it straight between his hands.  "I could wear this when we got out on the weekend sometime.  Not at Dalton…"

"You could wear it at McKinley," Kurt sing-songs at him, and Blaine doesn't suppress the urge to roll his eyes.

"I could but I won't."

"It was worth a try," Kurt says softly, leaning into his ear.  "Let me see?"

Blaine passes Kurt the tie, and Kurt shuffles back a bit, loops the fabric around the back of Blaine's neck, and _pulls_.  Blaine's heart feels like it's racing.

"Are you finding everything you need?" says the voice of an old man behind them, and they jump away from each other.

Blaine sneaks a look sideways at Kurt; he's bright red, but "we're good," he stammers out, and Blaine decides he has to try to be some kind of distraction.

"Actually, I was wondering where the photography stuff was."

"On the second floor," says the old man, "let me show you." 

~*~ 

It's all in some cabinets in a large bathroom, cameras and chemicals and lenses and tripods.  "Paul used to use this as a darkroom," the old man says, and when neither of the boys say anything further, "well, I'll leave you to it.  Tell me if you have any questions." 

"Do you think he noticed?" Blaine asks when the man is gone. 

"I don't think he _cares_ ," Kurt says, voice slightly strangled.  "Here - look at this."  He's sitting on the floor again, and he's taken out a bunch of old photographs from a bottom shelf.  Blaine looks at them too.  Some have groups of people and some just one, but there's picture after picture of the same two men, starting out as middle-aged in what looks like the seventies and getting progressively older.  In some of what must be the most recent pictures it's clear that one of them is the man who just left. 

"Do you think they were together?" Blaine whispers, and Kurt nods.  "And one of them - Paul," he remembers, "just died." 

Kurt nods again, jerkily, and puts his arms around Blaine, squeezing almost painfully tight.  "Don't leave me," he says. 

"Kurt - I can't really - " Blaine says, strange and helpless, but Kurt squeezes him again, the hint of sharp teeth on the top of his ear. 

"Promise me." 

"Okay."  Because that's all he can say, really, when it comes down to it, it seems like that's all he can ever say. 

Kurt releases him; Blaine looks down, and sees that the red bow tie is still wrapped around his hand.  "Should I try the tie on now?  It should be easier with the mirrors up here." 

Kurt doesn't give him the tie, though.  "Let me put it on you first?" he says instead, and his voice is breathy, his eyes are wide, and his cheeks still a little bit pink. 

"Yeah," Blaine breathes, and moves to stand in front of a mirror.  Kurt comes up next to him, and ties it first around his neck and then the bow, quick and simple.  There was almost no pressure from Kurt's fingers, and there's still not much from the tie, but somehow it still makes Blaine stand up straighter, hold his head higher, the faint presence around his neck.  "All wrapped up," he says, and it sounds odder out loud than it did in his head. 

"Like a present," Kurt answers, and darts forward to give his lips just the faintest kiss. 

~*~ 

They end up with two bow ties, a coat and a vest and a set of camera filters between them.  (The vest is Kurt's, everything else is Blaine's.)  They go outside to settle with the old man, sitting in a chair in the sun.  "I'm so sorry for your loss," Kurt says, and the old man hitches himself up straighter and seems to come to a decision. 

"Are you boys together?" he asks. 

Kurt holds out his arm, almost unconsciously, and Blaine loops his through it proudly.  "Yes, we are," he says.  "And for whatever it's worth, I'm sorry too." 

The old man coughs.  "Thanks." 

Awkwardly, Blaine gets his wallet out, and asks, "how much do we owe you?" 

The man waves his money away.  "Don't worry about it.  You guys gave me a big smile today, that's more than enough."


End file.
